Jerusalem mayor says Reform Jews can’t pray together at Western Wall

Mayor tells Kol Barama radio station 'there is no place holier than the Kotel'

By JEREMY SHARON
THE WESTERN WALL stands empty of worshipers amid the coronavirus crisis. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
THE WESTERN WALL stands empty of worshipers amid the coronavirus crisis.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Reform Jews should not be able to pray together at the Western Wall, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said on Thursday, causing consternation in several quarters.
Lion was speaking on the ultra-Orthodox Kol Barama radio station and was asked his position on the dispute over access to the Kotel for non-Orthodox Jews.
“There is no place holier than the Western Wall,” claimed Lion, although the Temple Mount itself and not the Western Wall is considered the holiest site in Judaism.
Asked what he thought about the “Reformers,” an ultra-Orthodox phrase connoting any stream of progressive Judaism, seeking to pray in mixed gender, egalitarian prayer services at the holy site, Lion replied “not at the Western Wall.”
Leader of the Opposition and Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid condemned Leon’s comments, saying “the times in which Jews are told where it is permitted to pray are over.”
There is no provision for egalitarian prayer services at the central Western Wall plaza, although there is a non-Orthodox prayer area at the southern end of the site where Reform and Conservative Jews frequently conduct prayer services and religious celebrations.
The Reform and Conservative movements, together with the Women of the Wall prayer rights organization, have sought to turn that area into a state-recognized prayer space and part of the Western Wall holy site, but the ultra-Orthodox and hard-line religious-Zionist parties forced the government to indefinitely suspend an agreement to do so during the last government.
Women of the Wall condemned Lion’s comments, saying they demonstrated “ignorance and a lack of inclusivity toward the biggest Jewish denomination in the world.
“The fact that the mayor of Jerusalem, someone who heads the city who is supposed to manage it with openness and a welcoming face toward everyone can say such things on the eve of Jerusalem Day is incredibly severe and outrageous,” the organization said.
Following the condemnation that erupted over Lion’s comments, the mayor issued a clarification saying “The Western Wall is holy to the entire Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, and everyone without exception is invited to pray at the complex in accordance with the customs of the site.”

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The phrase “customs of the site” is used by opponents of egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall to assert that only Orthodox practice is customary there. 
The Jerusalem District Court in 2015 ruled however that customs of the Women of the Wall, which include women wearing tefillin and prayer shawls, something not usually done in Orthodox practice, is also part of the custom of the site since the Women of the Wall have done so for many years there. 
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, President and CEO of the Israel Reform Movement’s said it was "very disappointing to see the mayor of Jerusalem choose on Jerusalem’s holiday to express a message of exclusion, intolerance, and disrespect for the citizens of Jerusalem who belong to Reform congregations, and towards millions of Jews around the world."
Continued Kariv "Instead of working towards mutual respect, the mayor chose to surrender to the belligerent politics of hatred and incitement."
Kariv also called on Lion to visit a Reform community in Jerusalem saying "We have no doubt that he will discover how much his words today were inappropriate and uncalled for by the mayor of the capital of Israel and the Jewish people."
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, President and CEO of the Israel Reform Movement’s said it was "very disappointing to see the mayor of Jerusalem choose on Jerusalem’s holiday to express a message of exclusion, intolerance, and disrespect for the citizens of Jerusalem who belong to Reform congregations, and towards millions of Jews around the world."
Continued Kariv "Instead of working towards mutual respect, the mayor chose to surrender to the belligerent politics of hatred and incitement."
Kariv also called on Lion to visit a Reform community in Jerusalem saying "We have no doubt that he will discover how much his words today were inappropriate and uncalled for by the mayor of the capital of Israel and the Jewish people."


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